The Point The Passage The Bible Meets Life The Setting

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The Point Hold on to purity at all costs.

The Passage Matthew 5:27-32

The Bible Meets Life We applaud the anniversaries of those who have been married for 25 years or longer. We rightly celebrate with them, but society often does with an added sense of amazement, as if it’s miraculous that two people have stayed committed to each other for so long. Faithfulness and purity have been a wonder to our culture, but it should be our norm. Jesus calls us to sexual purity, both physically and mentally.

The Setting The passage for this session addresses the Seventh Commandment, “Do not commit adultery.” As with so much of the direction God had given His people over the years, efforts had been made to limit the scope of God’s intention, focusing on outward actions only. As Jesus spoke of adultery, and its corollary divorce, He held up the exalted view of marriage that God had set forth for His people.

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What does the Bible say?

Matthew 5:27-32 (HCSB) A written notice of divorce 27 “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. (v. 31)—In Jewish circles, a certificate of divorce was 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has given to a woman so she could remarry without charge already committed adultery with her in his heart. of adultery.

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it

away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell! 31 “It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a

written notice of divorce. 32 But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case

of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

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THE POINT

Hold on to purity at all costs.

GET INTO THE STUDY

10 minutes

DISCUSS: Invite your group members to Notes

turn their attention to the image on page 101 of the Personal Study Guide (PSG). Ask: “When was the last time you couldn’t hear yourself think?” ACTIVITY (OPTIONAL): Poll your group. Ask: How many hours each day do you prefer to spend free from TV, radio, or podcast noise? Why? RECAP THE PSG (PAGE 102): The world’s quietest room is at Orfield

TIP: For this session, consider dividing your group members into guys and girls to ensure a safe environment for honest conversation. Make sure each group has a meeting space and a leader.

Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minn. It’s a chamber built with double walls of concrete and insulated steel covered by 3.3-foot thick acoustic fiberglass wedges. It’s said that a person can hear his own beating heart, gurgling stomach, and even pulsing inner ear. Most people can’t take the silence for more than 30 minutes. Our lives are filled with “noise.” And we’re often comfortable with that. It can drown out that still, small voice that whispers all is not well in our lives. Busy, noisy lives keep us from hearing the truth of what’s inside us. Greed, selfishness, lust, and a host of other things are hiding in our hearts. If you’re a Christian, it may be a lot easier not to take that deeper listen. Sin and temptation aren’t just “out there”; they are “in here.” SAY: “When we recognize the dual threat of both the internal and the external, we see the gravity of God’s call to live pure lives. It’s not just a call to purity in terms of our actions, but in our very being. It’s a call for absolute agreement in our thoughts, feelings, and subsequent actions. GUIDE: Call the group’s attention to The Point on page 102 of the PSG: “Hold on to purity at all costs.” PRAY: Transition into the Bible study by pausing to pray for group members. Ask God to supply wisdom and strength needed to fight ungodly temptations when they arise. BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE © 2015 LifeWay

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10 minutes

STUDY THE BIBLE Matthew 5:27-30

Notes

27

“You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. 28 But I tell

you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell!” READ: Ask a group member to read aloud Matthew 5:27-30. ALTERNATE QUESTION: What are the dividing lines between “pure” and “impure” in Scripture?

DISCUSS: Question 2 on page 104 of the PSG: “What are the dividing lines between ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ in today’s world?” SUMMARIZE: Jesus taught us that true purity isn’t just a matter of abstaining from sinful sex; it’s a condition of the heart that must be corrected. In fact, Jesus commanded His followers to do whatever is necessary to pursue purity inside and out. In verses 29-30, He gave us a battle plan for pursuing that kind of purity: ]]

Identify the source.

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Deal ruthlessly with the temptation.

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Replace the temptation with something better.

DO: Divide your members into groups of three or four people each. Instruct each small group to complete the activity on page 105 of the PSG together. One Battle at a Time: What are two or three practical boundaries you can set to protect your purity in the following areas? ]]

Dating relationships

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Internet use

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Television/ Movies/ Books

DISCUSS: Question 3 on page 105 of the PSG: “How can we be ruthless in resisting impurity without being judgmental and condemning?” TRANSITION: The next verses make it clear that sexual purity is equally

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THE POINT

Hold on to purity at all costs.

Matthew 5:27-30 Commentary Practice purity in your sexual conduct. Verses 27-28: The traditional teaching that Jesus began with comes from Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18: “Do not commit adultery.” Ancient Israelites interpreted adultery very narrowly as the physical act of sexual relations involving a man with a married woman. The goal of the Mosaic instruction was to preserve the physical sanctity of the marriage relationship. Jesus, however, revealed the true intent of the commandment with the words, “but I tell you.” The full implications of the commandment involve mind as well as body: “everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Whereas the original commandment focused on the actual physical act, Jesus began with the eyes: “everyone who looks ….” This phrase has the sense of “everyone who continues to look.” Jesus was referring to looking with longing and lust. It is one thing to notice beauty; it is quite another to desire to possess it. We must guard ourselves against sexual sin, including the gazing of our eyes. Not only are the eyes involved; the heart also is involved. Committing “adultery with her in his heart” emphasizes that God judges not only our deeds but also our thoughts and intentions. In the Bible, “heart” is used for the seat of human emotion, our deepest selves. The mind matters, but the heart drives our lives. Jesus knew well that behind the overt action lies character and motive. Behavior flows from the heart. Jesus redefined adultery, moving it from merely the physical act to the heart’s desire. Verses 29-30: By calling on His disciples to gouge out an eye and cut off a hand, Jesus made it clear (1) how serious sexual sin is and (2) how difficult it is to avoid it. As a result of the danger of an eye or hand causing someone to stumble, Jesus called for “gouging out” and “cutting off” the offending body parts, which should not be taken as a call for literal, physical mutilation. In fact, Deuteronomy 14:1 seems to forbid any type of self-mutilation. Rather, Jesus was employing intentional exaggeration for dramatic effect. A person must take whatever actions are necessary to remove the causes or triggers that lead to sin, whether it’s physical adultery or lust in the heart. The justification Jesus gave is that “it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell!” The term translated hell is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic geenna or Gehenna, a valley south of Jerusalem that had been a place of human sacrifice, and during the time of Jesus was a trash dump for burning garbage. Jesus used the term to refer to the ultimate place of punishment. Once again, Jesus employed exaggeration. It would be out of character with the larger thrust of Jesus’ teaching, and of the New Testament in general, that a follower of Jesus could so fall away through anger or lust that he or she would be cast into eternal punishment. Instead, it is a reminder that even Jesus’ disciples will face judgment according to their works—evil as well as good—on the day when He returns to establish His kingdom in its fullness. BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE © 2015 LifeWay

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10 minutes

STUDY THE BIBLE Matthew 5:31-32

Notes 31

“It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice

of divorce. 32 But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” READ: Ask a group member to read aloud Matthew 5:31-32. RECAP THE PSG (PAGE 106): God created our bodies, and He gave us our human needs and desires as integral parts of those bodies. God also gave us good and right avenues to fulfill those desires. ]]

Sin happens when we seek to satisfy a God-given desire through an unholy avenue. Instead of turning to the God-given avenues of fulfilling those desires, we turn to whatever is easiest. Or most convenient. Or the least costly.

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Jesus now brought marriage into the discussion. Marriage is the physical and spiritual union between a man and a woman for a lifetime; it is the one and only way God has given us to express and fulfill sexual desire.

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Marriage, like sex, has fallen under the shadow of sin. God intended the marriage covenant to be a reflection of the covenant He makes with His own people and, therefore, to be unbroken. Because of sin, however, marriages have failed to live up to God’s standard.

ALTERNATE QUESTION: To whom do you look as a model of faithfulness?

DISCUSS: Question 4 on page 106 of the PSG: “What are the implications of Jesus’ words for those who are single or married?” SUMMARIZE: In verse 31, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament law (Deuteronomy 24:1). In this particular law, a man was required to produce a divorce certificate instead of just arbitrarily deciding he didn’t want to be married anymore. This provision was instituted to provide legal protection for the divorced woman, since women had few rights in that culture and little ability to provide for themselves. Without this stipulation, a man could threaten to divorce his wife and leave her destitute. Even though the law was designed to protect women, the rabbis and religious leaders had distorted this law to allow divorce for even minor complaints. What was designed to be good was being used to abuse.

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THE POINT

Hold on to purity at all costs.

Matthew 5:31-32 Commentary Maintain faithfulness in marriage. Verses 31-32: The issue of adultery and divorce belong together in Jesus’ mind. He began with Deuteronomy 24:1-4, where Moses gave instructions about granting a bill or certificate of divorce. This text had caused a great deal of debate in Jesus’ day between competing schools of rabbinic interpretation. The critical issue was what constituted the grounds for divorce. The school of Shammai interpreted verse 1 literally as referring specifically to sexual immorality, namely, adultery. The school of Hillel interpreted the phrase broadly, concluding that anything about the wife that displeased the husband provided grounds for divorce. When interpreting Jesus’ teaching on divorce, we must understand the backdrop of this rabbinic debate. Jesus acknowledged the traditional teaching found in Deuteronomy 24:1-4: “Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.” He then argued forcefully that a man is not to divorce his wife, for if he does he makes her an adulteress. Likewise, the man she marries would be an adulterer. If a man divorced his wife, she would almost certainly remarry, committing adultery because in God’s eyes she was still married to her original husband. This also made the subsequent husband an adulterer since he married a woman who remained joined to her original husband in God’s eyes, a violation of the Seventh Commandment: “Do not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provided little argument for His conclusion. But in Matthew 19 He provided the biblical basis for His conclusion: Moses granted certificates of divorce on the principle that human beings were fallen and thus suffered from hardness of heart. This reasoning was rooted in the reality that we live in a Genesis 3 world. In contrast to Moses’ reasoning, Jesus employed God’s original intention (Genesis 1–2) as the starting point for His instruction (Matthew 19:4-6). Rather than accommodating human sinfulness, Jesus stressed the eternal nature and sanctity of marriage, in keeping with the greater righteousness He called His disciples to in Matthew 5:20. Jesus did add the exception clause “except in a case of sexual immorality.” The Greek word is a generic term for sexual immorality or marital unfaithfulness of all types. It constituted a fundamental breach of the marriage covenant. In such a situation, Jesus said, the husband was free to divorce his wife. While Matthew’s record limits the ability to initiate divorce to the husband, Mark’s record extends it to the wife as well: “if she divorces her husband …” (Mark 10:12). Jesus did not demand nor encourage divorce; He simply permitted it. In light of God’s original intention of one flesh and a monogamous relationship for life, we should continue to strive for that goal, even when Jesus’ teaching would permit divorce.

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10 minutes

STUDY THE BIBLE Matthew 5:31-32 Continued

Notes

SAY: “In this passage, Jesus calls us back to the sacred nature of marriage.“ RECAP: Jesus does give one exception here. Divorce may be permitted if a spouse is unfaithful to the marriage. That doesn’t mean Jesus condones divorce; in fact, it means the opposite. God loves and highly values marriage as a covenant relationship. A marriage can be ended only if someone is unfaithful. This means that faithfulness is so important that, if it’s violated, God will allow the ending of a covenant that was established before Him. Jesus is telling us to hold onto marriage. Commit to it. Don’t run, but stay faithful. Keep the following in mind: 1. Marriage is difficult. Marriage is difficult because we confront the depth of our selfishness. When we truly have to put someone else’s needs ahead of our own, we discover where our commitments lie. 2. Marriage is supported. No couple faces the challenges of marriage alone. God is with us, and God is for us. He is pro-marriage. In fact, He’s so much in favor of marriage that He chose the relationship between a husband and a wife to represent His own relationship with His people (Revelation 19:7-8; 21:2; 22:17). 3. Marriage is an opportunity for growth. God uses difficulties within marriage to make us more like Jesus. Marriage, the most intimate relationship, is the ideal place to display and practice the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). DISCUSS: Question 5 on page 107 of the PSG: “How do we love God and love others in a culture of divorce?” TRANSITION: Jesus calls us to engage in the fight for purity—both before and during marriage—at any cost.

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THE POINT

Hold on to purity at all costs.

Matthew 5:31-32 Commentary Continued Given that Jesus only gave the single exemption, does that mean that apart from sexual immorality God does not recognize divorce? In 1 Corinthians 7:10-16, Paul seems to add a second exception. Paul began with “I command the married—not I, but the Lord ….” After stating the heart of Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 5:31-32, Paul created a scenario of a believer married to an unbeliever and the unbelieving spouse refuses to remain in the marriage. In this case, the deserted husband/wife is now free. Thus, both sexual immorality and desertion are grounds for divorce in God’s eyes. All of Scripture must be the basis for our ethical and moral choices. Paul’s establishment of a second exception in light of a scenario Jesus never addressed suggests there could be other situations that would so violate the marriage covenant that they would justify divorce. But even in extreme circumstances, divorce should be undertaken with fear and trembling. One other issue deserves attention: do the exemptions of sexual immorality and abandonment only permit divorce, or do they allow both divorce and remarriage? In light of the fact that divorce and remarriage seem inseparable in the Jewish world, we probably should assume that once the marriage covenant has been broken by sexual immorality or abandonment, the divorced person would be free to remarry. We live in the reality of a fallen world where human beings habitually fall short of God’s ideal both in our relationship with God and in our relationships with other people. Our sinful, selfish actions and attitudes often put a strain on the relationship between husband and wife. This reality must not cause us to diminish the sanctity of the marital relationship. It is God’s will that His people abstain from sexual immorality, and even divorce. We learn from Hosea that as we maintain faithfulness and purity in our marriages, we present a picture of the intimacy between God and His people. Paul taught that as husbands and wives live out God’s design in marriage, we project an image of Christ’s love for the church. Regrettably, as we destroy marriage through unfaithfulness, we present a distorted image to the world of Christ’s love for the church. May we fervently resist unfaithfulness and sexual immorality that leads to divorce. Let us passionately advocate for the sanctity of biblical marriage as we hold on to purity at all costs. As we do, we project an image to the world of God’s love and faithfulness to His people.

Read the article “A Woman’s Status in the First Century” in the Winter 2015-2016 issue of Biblical Illustrator. Previous Biblical Illustrator articles “Divorce in the First Century” (Fall 2007), “You Have Heard It Said” Jewish Laws Behind Jesus’ Teachings” (Fall 2007), and “Laws Behind Jesus’ Teaching” (Winter 1996) relate to this lesson and can be purchased, along with other articles for this quarter, at www.lifeway.com/biblicalillustrator. Look for Bundles: Bible Studies for Life. BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE © 2015 LifeWay

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5 minutes

LIVE IT OUT SAY: “God wants our purity, sexual and otherwise. When we commit to purity, we can live with confidence that God will support us.”

Notes

GUIDE: Lead your group members to consider the responses to the Bible study listed on page 108 of the PSG. ]]

Evaluate. Assess your inner thought life as well as your outward behavior. Where have you grown comfortable with impurity with which God is uncomfortable?

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Replace. What is one way you are spending your time that is not contributing to your personal purity? Look for something to replace it this week.

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Talk. Seek accountability from a trusted friend of the same sex. Be honest with your struggles. Ask for prayer, support, and help. Offer to provide these things for your friend.

Wrap It Up SAY: “You don’t have to settle for a low standard of purity and faithfulness; God has something more. Go after it.”

Get expert insights on weekly studies through the Ministry Grid (MinistryGrid.com/web/BibleStudiesForLife).

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